Death row exoneree Isaiah McCoy walks to freedom upon his release from the Howard R. Young Correctional Institution in Wilmington, Del., in January 2017. (Courtesy of Attorney Herbert Mondros/Death Penalty Information Center)

Yes, this year was one of the worst in recent memory. But what if I told you that there’s reason to hope — that there is still some good to latch on to?

Well, there is. Here are 11 criminal-justice victories to prove it.

1. New York and North Carolina “raised the age.”

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Scientists, juvenile-justice experts and courts agree that kids and teenagers are different from adults. The part of the brain associated with decision-making is still underdeveloped, which renders them immature, reckless and impulsive. They are also heavily influenced by environmental factors, including family dynamics, trauma and income instability. But children across the country are still being prosecuted as adults in federal and local courts — sometimes automatically, sometimes at the discretion of a prosecutor or judge.

This year, New York and North Carolina passed legislation to “raise the age” and will no longer automatically prosecute 16- and 17-year-olds as adults. Instead, these teenagers can legally be processed in the juvenile-justice system, which is better equipped to assess and tackle young people’s unique needs, and aims to be rehabilitative, not punitive.

2. The Senate passed critical juvenile-justice legislation.

The U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. (Getty Images)

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Way back in 1974, the federal government passed the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act, agreeing that there should be a basic set of guidelines for approaching incarcerated youths. As outlined by the Coalition for Juvenile Justice, there were four major tenets of the legislation: Youths shouldn’t be locked up with adults, they shouldn’t be prosecuted as adults, they shouldn’t be prosecuted for offenses that wouldn’t be considered crimes if committed by adults, and there are racial disparities among detained youths that need to be reduced. With these ideas in mind, the JJDPA gave the federal government an opportunity to create a path for states and municipalities to follow — and fund them accordingly. But Congress has failed to reauthorize and update it since 2002.

3. Some juvenile lifers were released from prisons.

In case you missed it, the Supreme Court has ruled, twice, that sentencing juveniles to life without parole is unconstitutional. In accordance with these rulings, many states have agreed to eliminate the harsh sentence, resentence those locked up before the landmark decisions and put parole back on the table.

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But, as Jessica Pishko wrote in The Nation, it is remarkably difficult for convicted lifers to get out of prison. Some prosecutors just push for another life sentence or another lengthy sentence, with parole as an option down the line. Waiting for a parole board to review a case can take years, and release comes with a major condition that people who claim innocence have to grapple with: an acknowledgment that they are responsible for the crime for which they’ve spent a lifetime behind bars.

Despite these challenges, some have made it out. There’s Bobby Hines, who, at age 15, was sentenced to life without parole in Michigan for his connection to a murder. He didn’t pull the trigger but has spent the last 28 years behind bars because prosecutors said he was responsible for the killing. There’s Earl Rice Jr., who was 17 at the time he was locked up in a Pennsylvania prison for a robbery gone wrong. Rice has spent the past 43 years in prison because a woman he stole a purse from fell to the ground and fatally hit her head. There’s also Giovanni Reid in Pennsylvania, who was found guilty of conspiracy in relation to a murder when he was 16. While the numbers are still small, these three count among dozens given another chance by the Supreme Court and states acknowledging that kids are kids.

4. Thousands of convictions were dropped because of lab scandals in Massachusetts.

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For years, Annie Dookhan served as a drug-lab chemist, helping prosecutors build thousands of cases in Massachusetts. But by her own admission, she tampered with evidence, wrote false reports, failed to complete vital drug tests and lied about her credentials. In April, prosecutors decided to drop over 21,000 cases tied to Dookhan — many of which were prosecuted in Boston — rather than spend countless dollars and resources to retry all of them.

In November, prosecutors dismissed another 6,000 cases because of chemist Sonja Farak’s illegal activity in another crime lab. In addition to tampering with evidence, Farak stole and used drugs from a lab at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and conducted most of her work over eight years while high.

5. Louisiana passed a comprehensive reform package.

The Louisiana State Penitentiary located in Angola. The facility is a prison farm nicknamed the “Alcatraz of the South.” (iStock)

His platform was also one of the most progressive ones to date. He promised to end death penalty sentences, the prosecution of cases that involve stop-and-frisk, civil asset forfeiture and cash bail for nonviolent offenses. He vowed to treat addiction as a public health problem, to prosecute police engaged in misconduct and to protect immigrants.

7. New York City announced a plan to close Rikers Island.

A man enters the road to Rikers Island on March 31, 2017, in New York City. That month, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that the controversial jail will be closed within the next 10 years. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

8. There are more eyes on prosecutors.

The National Organization for Women protests outside Manhattan Criminal Court in New York City in response to news that District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. declined to file charges against Harvey Weinstein. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

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Police officers are easy to scrutinize for many reasons. They are the most public-facing law enforcement officials, and there is no shortage of stories about how they racially profile people, prey on marginalized groups, violate basic constitutional rights and kill. By and large, they get away with these behaviors. Considering all of this, it makes sense that activists, reporters and lawmakers have been critical of policing and have pushed for reform. But there’s another group of law enforcement officials who deserve the same amount of scrutiny: local prosecutors.

9. Use of the death penalty is still on the decline.

The use of capital punishment is on the decline. (Death Penalty Information Center)

According to the Death Penalty Information Center, which tracks national execution and death penalty sentencing, there were 23 executions this year. This marks the second-lowest number of executions in the past 25 years, and the continuation of a downward trend that’s lasted nearly two decades. The total number of new death sentences, 39, was historically low as well, marking the second-lowest number of new death sentences in any year since 1972. Public support for the death penalty is also the lowest it has been since that year.

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These trends can be attributed to a better understanding of how flawed cases can be because of science, juror bias and shady prosecutor behavior. Executions themselves are rife with problems, including but not limited to the fact that the drugs used to execute people are manufactured in unregulated pharmacies and don’t work. The costs associated with the appeals process, detention and the execution process are also astronomical.

10. Poor drivers in California got some relief.

Traffic in Los Angeles (David McNew/Getty Images)

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There was a time when motorists in the Golden State could have their driver’s licenses suspended because they were too poor to pay traffic fines. This put them in a classic “Damned if you do, damned if you don’t” scenario. Many people in this position still needed to drive to jobs where they earned what little money they had, at the risk of getting pulled over and accruing more tickets and fines that couldn’t be paid. They still had to take kids to school. Some caught driving with a suspended license were jailed.

But more and more programs are starting to offer vital assistance upon re-entry, and this year was full of success stories. For instance, my campaign to end mass incarceration, FREEAMERICA, helped to launch Unlocked Futures. The project will fund, offer guidance to and promote new entrepreneurial ventures by people who were once locked up.